Keen for Kyiv

Happy Spring/Autumn (depending on your hemisphere situation) - up here I regard this as the end of Summer and the start of looking forward to lowering temperatures and reduced humidity, something that cannot come soon enough. This contrasts with my position in New Zealand, where I would be very much looking forward to the return of Summer and its comfortable dry heat - we want what we do not have!


This last month has been a very eventful one, with Dad visiting to climb Mt Fuji and hike Yakushima with me, and my 26th birthday, and to round it all off Claire and I went for a week-long adventure to Kyiv, capital of Ukraine! Our trip was very generously facilitated by Claire's aunt and uncle who are living there at the moment, so huge appreciation to them for making it happen!

My knowledge of Kyiv, and Ukraine in general was largely limited to World War II and the USSR, Chernobyl, the 2014 Revolution, and a smattering of Slavic history (mostly from historical video games like Age of Empires), so I was going in with very low expectations (not in the sense of thinking it would be a terrible trip, but more that I knew I knew very little). The extent of my expectations were that Kyiv would be a largely grey city with lots of Soviet style concrete buildings, very dull and worn down, with a splash of colour from Orthodox Christian churches and cathedrals. As I would soon find out, I was very wrong - and gladly so!

The city of Kyiv is a very busy one, reasonably small (especially compared to Tokyo), the drivers are mental (the fastest we went in an Uber through the city was 80kph - seatbeltless of course!), and there is a lot of construction going on, but for all that there is stunning architecture and vibrant colour everywhere - a far cry from my expectations.

Our flight took us from early afternoon Tokyo to Munich, a 12 flight (for comparison, flying to Auckland is approximately 11 hours), followed by a wait of a couple of hours before flying back East towards Kyiv, another hour and a bit. Arriving at about 10pm, we were met at the airport by Claire's uncle, Dean, and took an Uber into the city. We were staying in a building that housed several commercial operators, a couple of hotels and some apartments, and so conveniently we were staying one floor above Dean and Mihoko, Claire's aunt. After a quick bite at Dean and Mihoko's, plus a discussion of the plan for our first day (a very slow plan, which was just what we needed), it was up to our room for showers and bed.

Day 1 -  Tanks, Planes and Combat Memorial

I'm not one to glorify warfare and all the suffering it causes, particularly WWII and the current situation of warfare Ukraine finds itself in with Russia, but I do have an undeniable attraction to planes and other military hardware - particularly from WWII. One of the museums I had identified as being on my radar was the 'Museum to the Great Patriotic War', as the Soviet Union called WWII. While not up Claire's alley so much as contemporary art might be, the for our first day Mihoko suggested taking us there - I couldn't have agreed any faster! But first, breakfast!

Shakshuka and chai tea - very tasty!

We took an Uber from breakfast to the museum, and were first of all greeted by rows and rows of tanks, APCs and other such pieces of military vehicles - I was in heaven as most of these vehicles aren't available for viewing in the West, making for a unique opportunity!

T-55

Mil Mi-24 'Hind' Helicopter

ZSU-23-4 self propelled anti-air

T-55 heavy tank

PT-76 light tank

T-34 medium tank

SU-100 heavy self propelled gun

IS-3 heavy tank next to an SU-85 and an SU-100 self propelled guns

SU-85 self propelled gun

SU-85 self propelled gun

A missile of the variety that caused small consternation in Cuba during JFK's tenure...

Yak-1 Fighter

MiG 23 variable geometry fighter

MiG 21 supersonic fighter

MiG 15 fighter

Sitting in the cockpit of a MiG 23 - this was seriously cool and worth the 10 Hryvnia (60 NZ cents)

'Top Gun!'

Li-2, based off of the DC-3

Armoured train carriage

Assorted artillery and one hecking big launcher

 Having drooled over the parking lot, we went into the actual museum, which is covered by the Motherland Monument, a giant sculpture 102m tall, 560 tonnes in weight, and holding aloft the symbol of the USSR. The sword it holds had to be cut short however, as it was going to be taller than the cross at the top of a nearby Monastery (which we visited later), so it looks like she is holding something more like a Gladius from ancient Rome!

 In front of the museum itself are some more tanks, and some sculptures, so our entry was a little truncated while we climbed on those (tanks, not sculptures) - which was fully allowed as demonstrated by the hordes of children massed over them!

Sculpture commemorating the crossing of the Dnieper River as the opening of the retaking of Kyiv

T-62 Main Battle Tank

I would love to say this is our first car or something like that

I kinda had to do this ("sigh" goes Claire)

The tanks outside the museum often get arty paint jobs - the latest is the Ukrainian Flag for Independence Day

The museum itself was understandably sombre, covering the rise of Nazism, invasion of the USSR and Ukraine itself. The siege of Kyiv was explored, and subsequent resistance efforts in Ukraine, plus the return of industry to the USSR and subsequent counterattacks that ultimately prevailed in pushing the Nazis back. There were plenty of artifacts recovered from the battlefields and swamps, including remnants of aircraft. Most of it was not translated, bar for an information sheet at the start of each room which discussed the room as a whole, but there were many stories of people who died in the defence, plus their images and possessions, giving it a very human feel.

The most haunting room was the one which covered the Holocaust, having of course plenty of materiel from the concentration camps, but also some very grim (not that the other things weren't) pieces, such as a gallows that was used to string people up, a bar of soap made from rendered people, and a pair of gloves made of human skin - not very pleasant at all!

While not particularly cheerful, I felt it important to see the museum and learn more about the plight of the Ukrainians/Soviets in general during WWII, something that is more than touched on in history classes in NZ, but still important to see while we were there.

At the top of the museum, underneath the Motherland monument, is the Memorial Hall, which contains the names of 11,600 Heroes of the Soviet Union (equivalent to the Victoria Cross), and 200 Heroes of Soviet Labour, the highest award for wartime labour and design. The hall itself had  an impressive dome shaped ceiling with a huge model of the award on it, surrounded by religious depictions of combat and such like. There was an interview being filmed in there with a large number of cameras and lights, so evidently it is a significant place!

The room next to the Hall is another long hall which contains thousands upon thousands of photos of people, soldiers and civilian alike, who died in Ukraine or in conquered territories, putting a human face to the scale of the war. The centre of the room is one long table, which is presented as for Slavic funeral traditions, all of which were quite novel to me.

Finally, at the entrance/exit to the museum are some exhibits to the current situation in east Ukraine, where there is an undeclared state of war between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine had a political revolution in 2014 as part of a wider shift towards the West/EU, and many Ukrainians in the east, who have strong cultural/ethnic ties to Russia (or who may consider themselves Russian) felt marginalised. Russia annexed Crimea as part of a move to 'protect' Russians living there, and have been sending troops in to fight the Ukrainian military in the East, ostensibly as part of a freedom fighting effort. This is denied by Russia, who says the troops there are volunteers, and so it leads to a very complex situation where there is a war/is not a war depending on who you ask.

The exhibits on this had a number of vehicles that had been shot up, stories from Ukrainian soldiers at the front, and other bits and pieces. Most of the translated stuff was political, so I'm sure there was greater depth of understanding to be had there.

 Having had (almost) our quota of combat and warfare, we headed out of the museum and towards the city, via a couple of monuments. There was also another (there are no shortage here) display of armoured vehicles, except in this case they were Russian, and had been destroyed/damaged and captured by the Ukrainians in the conflict happening in the East. These were also swarming with children.

A lull in the mob of children

Mihoko Claire and I walked to the Monument for the Holodomor Genocide Victims (a man-made famine in the 1930s by the USSR to thin out an independence movement in Ukraine, which killed between 7-10 million people), and then the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior/Eternal Flame which is for much the same reason as any other such Tomb, though no less poignant.

Having by now well and left the death and destruction behind, the three of us headed into the city via the Metro, which was an adventure in and of itself - Kyiv has the second deepest Metro station in the world, at 105m down (Pyongyang has the deepest at 109m). Given there is a massive river flowing through Kyiv, I understand the need to get below the water table and into some stable earth for construction, but apparently the metros were also designed to operate as nuclear shelters during the Cold War - this gives rise to the to the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. The escalators we took take a combined time of five minutes to get down - hate to think what would happen if someone fell!

This trip took us along to the city proper, which was where my preconceptions of Kyiv were well and truly dispelled! A large part of this was Maidan/Independence Square, which on this day was being set up with stages and such for Saturday's Independence Day celebrations. This was the centre of the 2014 Revolution which mobilised over half a million Ukrainians against their then President, and resulted in 113 deaths. It was crazy to think of some of the images I had seen of buildings on fire (one big building in the square was completely rebuilt), and snipers on the roof targeting protestors, contrasted with the relatively calm place we were in now!

A fountain celebrating the four traditional founders of Kyiv, three brothers and a sister, Kyi, Shchek, Khoryv, and Lybid

Saint Michael on an arch in Independence Square

The building behind the pillar used to be called the Hotel Moscow, but renamed in 2001 as Hotel Ukraine to celebrate 10 years of independence

The building on the right was completely incinerated in the 2014 Revolution and subsequently rebuilt. Jury is out as to the culpability of the fox in the foreground

Further along, a short walk from Independence Square is the People's Friendship Arch, which was built in 1982 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the USSR, and the 1500 years since the foundation of Kyiv. Beneath the arch is a statue of a Russian and a Ukrainian holding aloft the symbol of the USSR, and beside them is a statue of Tartars, the ethnic group indigenous to the region. There are apparently plans to remove this arch under de-Communism laws in Ukraine, but the country is a little cash strapped (and at war) so this may take some time. In the meantime, a crack has been added to show the relationship between Ukraine and Russia has become a little...strained lately, something that made me chuckle when I learned it.

Yay USSR!

The Tartar people looking on shiftily (I understand they weren't necessarily well treated in the USSR)

From the arch there are some great views of the Dnieper River, and of Kyiv in general

Looking North

Looking East

By this point it was late afternoon (having started relatively late once we woke up and had breakfast), so we went back to the hotel for a bit of chill before heading out to a Georgian restaurant for dinner - think lots of lamb, beans, cheese and wine (incredibly rich!), and then back to base for bed - a very successful first day I think!

Day 2 - Aircraft and Touring

One of my friends from university in NZ, Andrew, is a Ukrainian who swapped international relations and law for a commercial pilots licence (quite a change!). Given he lives in Kyiv, I absolutely had to see him, and so as soon as I knew the dates of the trip, I got in touch and told him to secure some time off work. Friday was our day, and so after breakfast we left Claire to go to an art gallery with Mihoko, and then Andrew and I drove through the madhouse traffic (Friday when people were going to work, and just before a three day weekend - what would normally take 15 min took closer to 30), and went to the other museum I had identified as being on my must go list - the Oleg Antonov State Aviation Museum - basically a huge open air display of aircraft, both helicopter and fixed wing, commercial and military. It was great, and only around $6 NZ for entry - museums in Ukraine are very affordable!

Experimental Izdeliye 181

L-29 Jet Trainer

Il-14g passenger craft

Su-7BM Fighter Bomber

SU-15TM Interceptor Fighter

SU-27 Fighter

SU-17 combat instruction plane

Watching a Wizz Air (Andrew's company) A-320 take off

Getting a good view of a helicopter taxi also

Tupolev TU-95 "Bear"

Tupolev 22M-3 Long Range Bomber

Be-12 Amphibious plane

Mi-26 Heavy Transport Helicopter - capacity for 82 passengers!

Il-76 Strategic Military Transport

MiG 29 Frontline Fighter

MiG-23

TY-134A - This used to be the Presidential Plane for Ukraine

MiG 19

Mi-24 with an interesting paint job (and no rotors)

AN-71 AWAC plane

Much like with the tanks, I was in heaven, but I had a bit more interest in these given my family history of aviation, super cool to see so many aircraft that have no presence in New Zealand or Japan (perhaps in the US but my chances to just pop on over there are relatively few). It was an awesome experience and great to have gone - some of the aircraft look a little worse for wear, but to have an indoor facility for them would be massively expensive; maybe one day!



After our time with aircraft, Andrew and I went back into the city and picked Claire up. A quick pit stop at Andrew's place to see where he lived, and to drop off the car, we then went to a craft beer place for a drink or two + lunch.

Then it was a walk to the metro into the city proper for a walking tour of some good spots in the city. We were due to meet Dean and Mihoko for dinner so we had to be relatively well paced with time, but we returned to the places at later dates to explore them properly.

There was:

The Golden Gate

Yaroslav the Wise, founder of the city of Kyiv under the Kyivan Rus

The Opera House

Saint Sophia's Cathedral Bell Tower

Because it was Flag Day (two public holidays in a row; Flag Day then Independence Day), there was a bit stage set up in the square by Saint Sophia's with people doing what I presume was Cossack dancing

Saint Michael's Golden Domed Cathedral (this one we didn't end up visiting properly)

The poster with flames below it was one of many that lined the walls of the cathedral, with the faces of Ukrainians who died fighting the Russians in the East

Via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Saint Andrew's Church (interior is being renovated plus some significant earthworks due to erosion so we couldn't go inside)

And then "Andrew's Descent", a street that goes from St Andrews to the waterfront, and is lined with markets and all sorts of shops and restaurants

And then the waterfront itself, which reminded me a fair bit of Wellington on a good day in terms of the atmosphere, lots of people having after work drinks and looking forward to a long weekend

The old Ferry Terminal Building

A funky looking McDonald's

Then it was back onto the Metro and back to our neighbourhood where I introduced Andrew to Dean and Mihoko, and the five of us had dinner and cocktails - all very pleasant!

It was great to be able to catch up with Andrew, I last saw him in August 2014, so a fair bit had changed in the interim! Also cool to introduce my friends to Claire and her family, amusing that it was in Kyiv!

Day Three - Churches, Cathedrals and Cossacks

When I went to France with my parents in 2008, the joke with Dad and I was that every day was "ABC" (Another Bloody Church/Cathedral/Chapel/Chateau/Crypt/Cemetery/Catacomb/Castle/Castelle, etc), and so the running gag with Claire and I was how much of that would be in Kyiv. Claire is also into art galleries so it could have been ABAG instead, but to be fair, I was very lucky to have had two consecutive days of tanks and aircraft (which I acknowledged), and so having done that, I happily embraced the fact that we were now going to be getting some "kulcha" ("culture" when said with a strong NZ accent). And so it was that Mihoko, Claire and myself went on a walking tour of the city to get up close and personal with some Orthodox Christianity.



Saint Volodymyr's Cathedral


Claire and I both agreed that this one looked like a cake, with very intricate icing details in white around the windows and such; this was my first Orthodox Cathedral viewed from the inside - it was really breathtaking (and puts Catholic grandeur to shame!)

It stands 49m high at its tallest, and was built in 1852 in the neo-Byzantine style. Ironically in the early USSR it served as an anti-religion museum. Now it is part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - a new branch that formed after a relatively awkward split with the Orthodox Church based in Moscow following the 2014 Revolution.

Inside there are lots of Icons of Saints and other Christian things I don't know much about, but it was very pretty and impressive. Being a public holiday and Independence Day there were lots of worshippers praying to Saints and relics and such, so I didn't want to get in the way or be the obvious tourist taking lots of photos (photos were permitted), so interior shots here were done very subtly and thus there aren't a huge number of them.

Just like a cake!

Pretty door

A whole lot of gold

Lots of Jesus, God, Saints and other religious people

Getting arty with star bursts and silhouettes

Next up was a quick walk across a bit of town (dodging an Independence Day military parade - the allure of potentially more tanks was very strong but I remembered today was for churches), and then to the Golden Gate, which we walked past the day before.


Golden Gate


The Golden Gate is all that remains of the 11th century wall that encircled Kyiv, so called because it imitates the Golden Gate of Constantinople. It was almost completely dismantled in the Middle Ages but for a bit of masonry and then rebuilt in the 1980s from a number of sources that illustrated its appearance.

New and old - 1980s imitation masonry and the real deal, shaping up the portcullis 

The info boards inside left no doubt as to the situation the Kyvian Rus found itself in during the Middle Ages, beset on all sides by Mongols, the Khazar and nomadic warlords, and showcased weaponry, armour and other artefacts that had been found from that time. It also gave some nice views of the square that it is situated in, and was a nice non-church pitstop.

The silver pointed top of the Icon Museum over the treetops

Some gargoyle/demony things on the Icon Museum

Curiously in the top room of the gate was a little fabric partition that when you entered put you in a little room with a spotlight set up shining on the floor. Illuminated by this was a large rectangle of soil, in which lay a very clean and well arranged human skeleton, with no context or indication as to who or what it was - bizarre that. Left to ponder that mystery, we headed down and went via the Icon Museum briefly towards Saint Sophia's Cathedral


Saint Sophia's


The first Ukrainian entry in the UNESCO World Heritage list, it was built in the 11th Century, and stands at its highest 28m. It has a mix of Byzantine and Ukrainian Baroque architecture from some renovations, with original frescos and mosaics inside. Again it has a whole lot of gold, Icons, Saints, Jesus and other things I don't know much about, but it was very pretty, and a bit more open to tourists, with static displays and info boards.

Also of note was the belltower, which we ascended before going into the complex fully. This gave us great views of the city around us, including a direct view to Saint Michael's. The belltower was built in the 18th Century, around the same time renovations were taking place on the original structure.

Spot the Orthodox Priest!

There were many many steps

Old, old and older - the "young" (18th Century) belltower plus similarly aged plaster on the Cathedral, plus original 11th century masonry

Having ascended and then descended, we went into the complex proper, and went to look at more gold and such like.

The burial pit of Yaroslav the Wise and some of his sons

There was a small annex which had some modern Icons going on, including one of Mary made up of little painted wooden balls, which made for a cool effect. It also showed a big diorama of medieval Kyiv, complete with the numerous walls that fortified the city (including the Golden Gate)

Then we went up the hill to Saint Andrew's and to have another look at Andrew's Descent, which also gave an opportunity to check out some of the stalls - I was mostly into the medal stalls, which had a curious mix of Soviet (both WWII and peacetime - including some Chernobyl recovery medals) and Nazi - there was even an Iron Cross and a paybook from a Panzergrenadier of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (and so a very naughty person). Photography was not allowed, so I had to be very sneaky and operate my camera through a hole in my backpack using my phone as a remote (I should be a spy)

Not a great photo, but the Nazi things were above the cameras

Claire resisted the urge to buy a mug, and then we met with Dean before heading into the central city again to then go to the theatre!

Mihoko had wanted to see Cossack dancing, and so booked the four of us tickets to see the P. Virsky Ukrainian National Folk Dance Ensemble perform. This was a school formed in 1937, and is regarded as an innovative and forward moving approach to dance that reflects historical Ukrainian traditions - sounded good to me!

Being theatre I wasn't expecting to be able to take photos, and so we were very surprised when the curtains opened that everyone took out their phones and started taking photos - some even with flash (good luck having an effective use of flash in a theatre of that size with an iPhone). This was unusual to me to say the least, but when the intermission finished I was there with my camera ready to go (silent shooting on a mirrorless is a blessing). With so many different styles of dance, costume changes, and dancers (including a few with young and very young children), I took many many many photos (the bulk of my editing has been of these)

There was some stunning athleticism and flexibility, agility and skill from everyone - we were wondering what the average age of the adult performers was and then what age they tend to retire, as it cannot be easy on your body in any way shape or form. The first half which I did not photograph had some dancing featuring spears and more martial uniforms, as well as women wearing dresses and crop tops that had lots of flowing fabrics, very pretty and colourful. All in all it was a great experience and we noted that there was a huge amount of variety there, with the audience featuring everything from very young to very old, Ukrainian and English speaking, and everyone was very much getting into it - an awesome experience for sure!

Day Four - Monasteries and Crypts

Sunday Dean had off, and so he very graciously gave it up to spend with us. The bulk of this was spent in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Monastery of the Caves, which is a historic Orthodox monastery famous for a cave system underneath the main structure. Founded in 1051, it has been a centre for Orthodox Christianity for centuries. It shares UNESCO status with Saint Sophia's. It has over 100 resident monks, and is in the design of Ukrainian Baroque.

Again, it looked a bit like a cake with very intricate icing, and the entire complex has many different structures, all with lots of Icons, incense and gold embellishments - very impressive all round. Additionally, being Sunday, it was full of worshippers and so it made for a very neat experience.

Firstly was the Lavra Belltower, which was the tallest free standing belltower in the world when it was completed in 1745. Destroyed along with the main church in WWII, it was rebuilt after VE in 1995. We were in time for the 11am service, and so were in the belltower when it started to ring to bring people into the church - very loud but a cool experience! The bellman did a very good job of operating levers and foot pedals all connected by a complicated system of ropes and pulleys, very admirable indeed!

We got some very good views from the tower, as you'd expect, and with the soundtrack of bells it was a very epic sensation!

After descending, and with our ears ringing (I think my hearing "progressed" about five years after five minutes up there), we went into the main cathedral building plus an adjacent one - more gold, Icons, mosaics and such like, all very impressive and pretty (still don't know much about any of it)

Another pretty door

This room had a very celestial feel to it

Having done the main complex of the monastery, we headed to the lower levels, where the cave system is. The cave system was settled in 1051 by a monk called Anthony, and in the 16th and 17th Centuries the system was described as stretching for hundreds of kilometres, to Moscow and beyond. Whether this is true or not I do not know, as the parts we could look at were relatively limited, and not very cave-like, having been plastered to look like low and narrow white corridors. The caves serve as a tomb to important monks - over 100 of them, and so no photography is allowed, but there were plenty of people down there for worship, and a few there for a look (us). The corridors were very narrow, the rooms very small and smelling of people and incense, lit with hundreds of tiny candles, and the walls lined with crevices housing glass coffins. Apparently during the USSR the occupants of said glass coffins were uncovered given the lack of religiosity of the Soviets, but in the present the mummies are wrapped in shrouds - though you can very clearly make out that there is a corpse in there. Each of the coffins and icons on the walls had little cloths for wiping after worship - the method of prayer is apparently to press your head against Jesus/the Saint/Monk/coffin; all very interesting to witness, if a little strange to me! Wikipedia tells me some of the occupants include Pope Clement I's head (died 99), Saint Spyridon (died 348), Queen Eufemia of Kyiv/Hungary (died 1139) and Saint Kuksha (died 1114), so a lot of important people in the Orthodox Church. As we were getting in the way of people who actually had things to do there, and it was all a bit stifling with bodies (alive and dead) and Saints and candles, we didn't spend terribly long in there.

Then it was a bit of walking through the streets of the monastery, before heading to see some other cool architecture that Claire had identified in the city.

This car looked like it had been parked since the fall of the Soviet Union

We walked past the Weeping Widow's House - so called because when it rains the woman's face appears to be crying. It is used as an official state residence for visiting dignataries - Condaleeza Rice has stayed here apparently! Otherwise lots of cool street art and other architecture - one highlight was the "Chocolate House", which was built in the 1890s in the style of Venetian Renaissance by a rich merchant. Each room has a different aesthetic, ranging from Art Nouveau to Baroque to something verging on Art Deco (a bit early but still). It is called the Chocolate House because its brown exterior, complete with intricate carvings, is reminiscent of an expensive chocolate bar. Unfortunately photography wasn't allowed in there, so follow this link to have a look.

Then it was back to the hotel for a bit, before we headed to a nice Georgian restaurant for dinner as our penultimate dinner together in Kyiv - very tasty!

Day Five - Claire and I hit Kyiv by ourselves

For the majority of our trip Claire and I were very lucky to be chaperoned/guided by Andrew, Mihoko and Dean - certainly very useful when in a city that you have no comprehension of (and virtually no linguistic ability in either - my vocabulary is limited to yes/no, thank you, it was delicious, and a number of swear words)


Being a public holiday, a number of museums and galleries were closed, so we spent some of Sunday night looking at things to do. One thing that jumped out at me was something that went along with the WWII theme, though in a far more profound way than me drooling over tanks and jets.


Babi Yar is a small valley in the North West of Kyiv a short metro ride away that during the Nazi occupation of the city was the site of several massacres. The most (in)famous one was between 29-30 September 1941 where approximately 33,700 Jews were executed, making it the largest single massacre of the Holocaust up to that point, and the third biggest all up. Overall up to 150,000 Jews, Gypsies/Roma, Communists, Soviet POWs were executed there, making it a pretty solemn location. I haven't had the opportunity to go to a concentration camp before, but I think it important to remember and appreciate the scale of the Holocaust, so this was something fairly profound to visit. The corpses of the victims were exhumed when the Nazis realised they were starting to lose, and subsequently incinerated, so the valley returned to being a valley, and is now filled with monuments to different groups of people who were executed.

The primary monument is one to the Soviet Union in general, featuring men, women, children, soldiers and civilians, and is a very dramatic and moving piece. Apparently it was the cause for large Jewish protests when it was built in the 1970s, as it didn't reflect the unique suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust; something that prompted the installation of other separate monuments around the park. We didn't see them all, but managed to go to ones of particular note/significance to the Holocaust.

Monument to Tatiana Markus, a member of the Kyiv anti-Nazi underground. She was responsible for the assassination of several SS officers, Gestapo agents, Nazi soldiers and officials, apparently killing dozens by means of poison, grenades and guns. Unfortunately she was captured in 1942 and tortured for months before being killed, though as a testament to her hatred of Nazis, she did not betray anyone in the underground. Her monument depicts her as very defiant, and good on her!

One particularly sad (not that any weren't not sad) monument was to the children who died in the Holocaust, and it was a very haunting one at that - children depicted as dolls/toys. One was a little too haunting to photograph for me, being a boy doll with its head almost removed; not such a fan of that...

The other particularly interesting one was to the Gypsy/Roma population, as shown by a big wagon (sadly with bullet holes all through it)

While the park is obviously a solemn one, and in memorium for a horrible period in European history, it was filled with families playing and generally having a good time. This was a very pleasant juxtaposition, preserving the memory of the place while also reclaiming it from its terrible past. Also, it was filled with squirrels, which for a New Zealander are very novel and worthy of spending a lot of time taking photos of ("oh God" mutters Claire)

Having done the most profound aspects of the park (and wary of stretching Claire's tolerance of me chasing squirrels like a child), we then headed into the city again for coffee/lunch and some more exploring of galleries.

"Lunch" when you are as big a sweet tooth as I 

We went to an art gallery called the Naked Room which had an exhibition of art done by people with Downs Syndrome; some fun pieces there, and we also went to a park that is just above the Friendship of Nations Arch. There we found a big statue of a frog which seemed to have Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars in his mouth, and the Mariyinksy Palace, the official residence of the President of Ukraine - couldn't go in obviously but took some photos.

See the similarity?

The reaction of the woman to my right amuses me

A lot of these critters around Kyiv

A sculpture commemorating the Dynamo Football team of Kyiv, many of whom died during the Nazi occupation

The National Theatre of Puppetry or something like that

Saw this and had to try it (I rarely have fizzy drinks), disappointingly my tongue wasn't turned blue

Magic Snail is a coffee cart chain that are everywhere in Kyiv, thought them rather funny

Then it was one last walk through the city, seeing a few bits and pieces along the way, before we got back for our last dinner at a brewpub close to the hotel.

These are cool pop up installations that provide mobile charging spots and wifi hotspots, as well as being things for selfies and funny photos - reckon Nelson should get in on these

Lots of charging ports on the backside, plus a small sun shelter

One last look at the Dnieper 

Monument to Saint Volodymyr

Saint Michael's belltower

Wall of the fallen - Ukrainians who died fighting the Russians in the east

More interesting facades

 Our last stop was at a coffee place that is in an old tram located in the University Park, on the recommendation of Andrew - in addition to coffee they do a good hot chocolate, and also sell low carb water (didn't know water had carbs but there you go)

Taras Shevchenko, a famous poet apparently and the namesake of the park and university this statue is in

Manhole cover depicting the four founding siblings of Kyiv

After dinner it was back to the hotel for a farewell to Dean, who had to leave early in the morning for work, and then packing for us (not that we had a lot). Then it was up and checked out by 9, breakfast with Mihoko and relaxing for a bit, before we ubered to the airport to begin our journey back to Japan, via Frankfurt (which has seriously militant security, holy cow! I thought going to the US was tense - never before had I seen an MP5 up close and personal until I was being given some extra screening at the airport, both for "failing" the full body scanner, and then something in my baggage aroused suspicion...) Luckily after my cavity search (jokes) we were on our way and aside from a small 2 hour delay due to a toilet failure aboard our 747-400 (my dismay at being on such an old plane for such a long flight was palpable), everything went smoothly and we arrived back in Tokyo early afternoon on Wednesday.

Kyiv-Frankfurt, very nice

An aged wing aboard an aged plane with aged toilets, as seen through an aged window

It was straight into it for me that evening as I began teaching a business English class to a couple of salarymen at a vaccuum turbine distribution company that evening (making hay while it shines), and then a weekend of working - jet lag hasn't been such an issue except I hadn't been getting tired until after 1am; something I have largely been able to conquer (a relief being a morning person ordinarily!).

As I said, Kyiv defied my expectations completely, in an entirely pleasant way. The people we encountered were all very friendly and helpful despite some language barriers (made me very grateful for my Japanese ability here), and the vibrance and colour of the city was superb. There was a good mix of hardware and ABCs, jovial and sombre, with good food and drink throughout, and excellent company. Once more a huge thanks to Dean and Mihoko for facilitating and essentially hosting us throughout our time, not to mention taking so much time to tour us around - they were incredibly generous. I think they learned some new places through us, but they were massively responsible for most of the things we saw; a great range to be sure!

Now that this adventure is over, the last trip I have coming up in the near future is a study trip with my Professor and cohort as we go to Iwate Prefecture to study the tsunami recovery going on up there - I was there for this purpose in February so we shall see what I get out of it this time....

I think this is the longest blog post (if not it is a strong contender for second or third), and so we'll have to see what the next one will be about! But until then, well done for getting through it all, trust me it was a big effort to get through the thousands of photos I took, and even more to choose the ones that made it here!

Til next time, stay frosty!

Troy :)